Unique Books and Literary Gifts

Fashion: A Manifesto

by Anouchka Grose

From the court of Louis XIV to TikTok’s Avant apocalypse, psychoanalyst and clothes lover Anouchka Grose takes an unexpected look at fashion to unpick the hold it has on so many of us. But rather than insisting we give up on the thrills that fashion has to offer, Grose outlines a radically new approach to the way we represent ourselves and looks forward to a future where our clothes treat us – not to mention the planet – more kindly.

Exile

Three extraordinary writers – Oscar Wilde, Richard Sennett, and Kirsty Gunn – reflect on the condition of exile in this beautifully presented giftset. As the great sociologist Richard Sennett writes, ‘Home is not a physical place but a mobile need; wherever one is, home is always to be found somewhere else.’

The Foreigner: Two Essays On Exile

by Richard Sennett

This pair of essays explores displacement in the metropolis through two vibrant historical moments: mid-nineteenth-century Paris, with its community of political exiles, and Renaissance Venice, where state-imposed restrictions on ‘outsider’ groups – including prostitutes as well as Jews – had surprising cultural consequences. Written by Richard Sennett, who has spent an intellectual lifetime exploring how humans live in cities.

Beautiful and Impossible Things: Selected Essays of Oscar Wilde

by Oscar Wilde Gyles Brandreth

In his introduction to this selection of essays by Oscar Wilde, Gyles Brandreth writes, ‘There are no known recordings of Oscar Wilde speaking, but you can hear his voice very clearly in the pages that follow. These essays illustrate his remarkable way with words and reveal both a range of his opinions on things that mattered to him and a flavour of his ‘philosophy’ of art – and life. If you are looking for the company of Oscar Wilde ‘on song’ you are in for a treat.’

My Katherine Mansfield Project

by Kirsty Gunn

When Kirsty Gunn received a Randell Fellowship from the British Academy and Carnegie Foundation in 2009 she returned to spend the winter in Wellington, near the childhood home of Katherine Mansfield, the writer to whom she’d always felt most connected. In this lyrical essay, Gunn explores the ideas of home and belonging – and of her own deep connection to a place where every flower and gatepost seems embroidered with the memory of some story or another.